WELCOME TO
The ‘Bookmark This’ Blog
Read about my favourite books, teaching, reading for pleasure and other things that interest me, like Icelandic traditions and honesty boxes in the Scottish Highlands. Be warned, I have been known to ramble.
Brain is feeling overwhelmed
Lacking motivation to write blog posts as my brain (and heart) are feeling overwhelmed!
Story props and small shops!
Showing some small business love for two UK based shops - Babi Pur and Conscious Craft. No, this isn't an ad or sponsored, just two companies that I love and a bit of inspiration for making up a book gift set with story props
Sand, sea and some book suggestions
After weeks of the most unScottish weather (it’s been consecutive weeks of blue sky sunshine!), the rain has returned. My garden is happy about this. I just hope this is not now the rain back for the rest of summer! (Never bloody happy!) As I try to remain optimistic that we’ve not just experienced summer for the year, I’ve decided to do a wee blog post on some of my favourite Scottish locations to visit in the sun (and rain, to be honest they’re all year round loveliness) and also recommend some sunshiney beachy themed books.
Blog-Block & Back to Basics
Life is busy. My brain is busy. Website traffic is not busy. Going back to basics with some book recommendations. I hope you enjoy!
Take your “man up” nonsense and get it in the bin!
With most difficult topics or questions I turn to a book. Even just for a starting off point. There’s so much nuance in relationships and feelings, I find myself getting into a brain fankle trying to explain it all to a 3…4…5…6 year old! Picture books are the answer. In fact, they are almost always the answer! So I hope adding to our section on feelings and including those trickier topics like death, family separation & racism will be useful for you too.
Reading for pleasure, buy a book, donate a book and then what?
I have been asking myself/the internet/my husband/my colleagues (I’m a lot of fun at parties, I know!) but what happens once kids get these books? Don’t misunderstand me, I am so excited to be able to celebrate World Book Day as a bookseller as well as a parent this year and truly believe what they do is phenomenal. But once these kids have their book - is it just gathering dust? Especially for those young people who are classed as growing up in “disadvantage and inequality”? (I promise it gets more positive soon…)